as told by a social media opportunist

Social media marketing has become so widely popular that there are now courses being offered to teach entrepreneurs the ropes to this new strategy. In Laconia, New Hampshire, an eight week course is being offered for a little over $600 that teaches the skills needed to maintain an online presence while marketing via social media. Although marketing via the internet is gaining so much attention, not everyone believes it’s for the best. In fact, according to Blasting News, marketing on social media can actually cost more than it’s worth. At some point or another all companies online will typically purchase advertisements, but according to the site, ads on social media can be quite pricey.

They explain the importance of understanding how ads work varying sites, such as Twitter and Facebook. On Twitter, it’s common for an ad to only last eight minutes before a user moves on in their scroll of the timeline. Their biggest suggestion is to eliminate the outsourcing and to do the research and work yourself. Marketing is a beast on its own, and now we’re having to understand the ins and outs of social media at the same time. Is it going to be worth it?

Alas St. Patty’s day is upon us! And the downtown businesses here in Morgantown aren’t being shy about it on social media. This is when they shine: the busiest drinking day of the year. Establishments such as Fat Daddy’s are notorious for social media promotion, but nothing can top the traffic they receive during the week of St. Patty’s. Students plan out their St. Patrick’s Day festivities for days, trying to figure out where to spend their money and time as the day approaches.

What better way to urge them to spend that money (and time) at your place of business than to ruthlessly promote yourself on Twitter? To make sure you are continuously being talked about as the day gets closer? There isn’t one, and Fat Daddy’s has mastered it. They began promoting three days ago, and they haven’t stopped. Take a look, but be prepared for a ruthless amount of brilliant self promotion.

The math is what makes social media marketing really incredible. These tweets are all making “impressions,” which in Twitter-speak means they are being seen and scrolled past by a follower on a time line. In Fat Daddy’s case, they have almost 10k followers. For every retweet they get, the tweet gains impressions on a new time line. And the pattern continues. A single tweet could be seen thousands and thousands of times – thousands and thousands of people that are beginning to only associate St. Patty’s Day with Fat Daddy’s. Who knows, maybe they’ll start calling it St. Daddy’s Day ….or, well, maybe not.

This can get risky, however. According to Brandon Gaille, self-proclaimed marketing expert and blog master, one of the top reasons accounts get unfollowed on Twitter is because of their constant self-promotion. You have to be able to master it, like an art. Promoting at this rate may work for a big holiday when it’s essential to be noticed, however on a typical weekend it would likely draw attention away from your account. So be careful!

I wanted to apologize for my lack of attentiveness this week. There has been a loss of someone very near and dear to me, and my blog had to take the back seat. However, I am back with more social media strategies and marketing news to share with you.

New studies show that a rather large way to companies to reach a larger audience via social media is to use one vital tool: their employees. Typically, an employee stands to reach more or different followers or users than the company page itself.

For example,Joe Mama’s nightclub in Morgantown frequently retweets their bartenders giving shout outs to the club, telling people which bar they’ll be at and what the specials are, including which bands will be performing – one of the bar’s largest crowd-drawers. This not only gets the specials across, but the girls use their fan base as a way to draw in more business, which is great marketing for the bar itself.

We are often talking strategy about how you, yourself, can publish quality content to draw in more profit, but why not let your employees do it for you? Of course, it’s always smart to hold a small meeting / seminar regarding what is appropriate online behavior when representing someone or something other that oneself (there’s always someone getting themselves fired for inappropriate conduct online), so it’s definitely best to avoid that whole PR nightmare and prepare beforehand. Use your employees! Most of them are millennials, and they love to use social media.

As social media has exploded in the past few years, we have experienced a change that would have once been unheard of. Companies are now specializing in online media marketing, and can be hired to run your’s as well. An issue that has been discussed here is the ability to find time to run a marketing campaign on social media. It can beIS ridiculously time consuming. However now, if your business can foot the bill, there are companies such as Social Chain.

Social Chain’s not-so-secret weapon is that they can make any tropic a trending topic on Twitter – in less than thirty minutes. That’s incredible. You want to be noticed? That’s the spot. I personally go to the trending topics generally once a day – at least – to see what’s new in the world and what people are talking about. If you can land yourself a spot there? The attention would be incredible. The Social Chain was challenged by Buzzfeed and The Gadget Show to prove they could trend any topic in 30 minutes or less, and they succeeded.

The company, a start-up based in Manchester, was started by 22 year old Dominic McGregor and 23 year old Steve Bartlett. The average age of their employees is 22 – it’s a changing world, and when it comes to social media, the millennials are rocking it.

The Social Chain owns over three hundred of Europe’s largest social media communities, and they have an audience base of over two million people! And there’s some real money in it, too. The European start-up just finished a deal with German talent management firm NVC, for a $2 million dollar investment!

While I often discuss the benefits of marketing your company on social media for an increased profit margin, maybe another great suggestion would be joining the marketing business as a whole. It’s taking the world by storm, and I don’t foresee it stopping anytime soon.

The worst part? Companies are creating more stuff than ever. They’re investing in social, they believe in content, but they’re seeing less ROI (return on investment) from more effort.

We’re in the midst of an engagement crisis, because the number of channels is growing, but marketers are doing the same thing as before. And it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

– Blaise Lucey

According to Lucey, the biggest issue now, and the culprit behind the dropping engagement among followers/friends, is that most social networking sites are now requiring paid advertisement. Another factor? Everything is developing so quickly. Instagram has surpassed Twitter in popularity. Snapchat is gaining attention and users like wildfire.

The biggest weakness in digital marketing today is not the failure to adapt to a changing landscape; it’s the failure to realize that the landscape is never going to stop changing.

– Lucey

The environment is changing, and although companies have continued to adapt throughout the process of social media’s birth, they must continue to adapt yet. Even online dating sites are getting more attention, and in return, most likely more marketers.

I’ve shown a lot of ways to market on social media, but it’s important to also realize that it’s an ever-growing market, and that the methods will continue to change and improve.

As we come to the end of this series, there is one final platform I’d like to address: Tumblr. Born in 2007, Tumblr’s popularity has only increased over the past nine years. In fact as of 2013, 120,000 new blogs were being posted every day.

Marketing on Tumblr isn’t going to work for every business, however. The most common types of businesses that seek attention from Tumblr are the fashion industry, large websites, and publishing/broadcasting media due to Tumblr’s set up being more visual, more photo based, than word based.

Companies such as the Boston Globe, CNET, Elle Magazine, Glamour, the Huffington Post, IBM, J. Crew, and Vimeo are all making a big splash on Tumblr, according to the Social Media Examiner. But what are they doing that’s so great?

As with any social media site, you need to figure out who your audience is. You need to be able to target them and appeal to them.

But first? You need to come up with an excellent, and oftentimes witty, Tumblr username.

Next, you need to find your ‘niche’ and focus on it. Not everything on Tumblr needs to be funny. You may even stand out if you stray from the norm.

First impressions are everything, and they happen in a matter of seconds. In fact, in the first 30 seconds of a job interview, the employer has generally also decided whether or not they like you. 30 seconds to sell yourself. 30 seconds.

That sounds short, right? So what if I told you that you had to sell yourself in SIX seconds? Could you do it? That’s just what marketers on Vine have to do. Vine is a social media site that allows the user to post 6-second videos. Six. Seconds. How do you get someone to listen in a period of time that you can hardly say your name and title?

It can be done, just like it can be done in 140 characters, but it’s hard and I don’t think many brands have the formula yet. – Thomas Messett

Messett is the head of digital marketing for Nokia Europe. Even though it’s possible, like all things there are some essential tips / rules to follow, according to Social Times on Ad Week, such :

Lead By Example. Using humor and science is one way to really draw in attention. Everyone loves to laugh, and everyone loves to be mind-blown. So use these two as part of your algorithm to success.

Use those six seconds to anchor your video to a more cultural or narrative reference point